Ways of integrating eating into everyday lives - a qualitative study in Germany.

BACKGROUND: Food-related behaviour is a very complex topic. A common way to reduce complex issues to their essential content is to create a typology. In Germany, with regard to food-related behaviour, the creation of a typology has often been carried out by commercial research institutes, but also by (international) scientific institutes. The former have mostly used quantitative methods, the latter usually have a specific content focus. Within this study, we want to investigate how people integrate eating into their everyday lives while engaging with themselves and the environment, thereby living out personality development and related socialisation. METHODS: 37 qualitative interviews were conducted and evaluated by means of content-structuring qualitative analysis and type-forming qualitative content analysis. Interviewees were recruited via recruitment calls using different channels, such as newspapers or university e-mail lists. Participants over the age of seventeen were eligible to take part in the study. Both the individual action processes and the interpretation processes regarding food-related behaviour were taken into account. The final sample consisted of 20 male and 18 female participants with an age range from 18 to 83. RESULTS: The result were seven eating action types, namely: Eating as a way of life, The Relaxed, Eating as self-determination, Eating as a necessary Evil, The Adaptive, The Overstrained and The Controlled. CONCLUSIONS: We contribute to the study of food-related behaviour with the chosen qualitative method of type-building and by looking at how people integrate eating into their everyday lives. This contributes to a broader understanding of this phenomenon and complements the findings of existing commercial and academic food-related typing-building activities. Specifically, through identifying "The Overstrained" as a novel eating action type, this study adds to the literature in the field and may be a useful baseline for future research.

Determining the Distinguishing Features of Different Eating Action Types in Germany Using a Mixed-Method Approach.

Food-related behavior is a very complex topic, as it affects the most diverse areas of life. Accordingly, wide varieties of disciplines have already dealt with the topic to understand it better. The result is that there is neither a uniform nutrition knowledge nor a uniform nutrition behavior. In order to reduce the complexity of a field of study, there is the methodical means of type-building. Both commercial and academic studies have already formed nutrition types, either by means of standardized questionnaires or with a specific content focus. However, since both individual and social aspects influence food-related behavior, we investigate how people integrate eating into their everyday life against the background of (competing) individual and social demands by focusing on the individual point of view, for which a mixed methods approach is used. Based on 42 semi-structured, problem-centered interviews conducted in Germany in 2017, we built qualitative food-related types in a first step, which are analyzed in this article using a quantitative content analysis and cross-over analysis to identify the particular distinguishing feature(s) of each type and test them for significance. The results show the prominent characteristics for each type and indicate furthermore that subjectivization, self-determination, the body as an instrument of power, adaptation to the environment and being overstrained with the own behavior are particularly prominent when it comes to eating. Moreover, we clearly identified The Overstrained and The Relaxed as independent eating action types, which we could not find anywhere else. The study shows that interventions, especially for The Overstrained and The Controlled, are necessary to achieve a relaxed approach to eating in everyday life. At the same time, systematic approaches should be used to intervene in cases of overstraining or controlled behavior.

Protein for Community-Dwelling Older People: Aspects That Influence the Perception of Commercially Available Protein Drinks.

In an aging population, support for independent living is increasingly critical for older generations. Currently, sarcopenia is a major cause of frailty, which increases the risk of decreased mobility, falls, morbidity, and mortality and leads to dependence on third parties. Sarcopenia is preventable by consumption of adequate protein. However, many older people do not meet the recommended daily allowance of protein, thereby supporting dependence rather than independent living. Current literature indicates that a protein drink could be an appropriate product for older peoples' protein consumption. We were interested in autonomous persons whose nutritional decisions were still self-determined and thus could preventively influence their personal health. This study evaluated three commercially available protein drinks in three focus groups (n = 25) to gain insight into which aspects influence the perception of commercial protein drinks on community-dwelling older people (age, 76.8 ± 4.9). Findings from the focus groups revealed only aspects, which influenced the perception of commercial protein drinks negatively. Most importantly, the drinks did not comply with relevant aspects when buying (healthy) foods, which where naturalness, freshness, locally grown ingredients, and trust. Furthermore, the target group did not see a need for additional protein consumption. Thus, we identify important aspects to be considered for the development of a target-group-specific protein drink as well as more suitable communication to prevent distrust in order to support independent living for community-dwelling older people.